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Capraia Isola

The
municipal territory extends for 19,26 square kilometres on the rocky ridge
of volcanic origin and takes in the whole of the island. The single
inhabited centre is situated to the north east on a promontory overlooking
the inlet where the little port is found. It was annexed to the
Livorno province in 1925, after the detachment from that of Genova.

Noted as Etruscan, Greek and Roman (in 67 B.C. Pompeo swept the
board of the den of pirates which it hid), in IV century Capraia became
the goal of the Anacoreti monarchs and was placed under the jurisdiction
of the Luni Episcopate. In 962 Ottone I conceded it to Pisa; more
than once besieged and conquered by the Saracens, it became a Genovese
dominion in 1283.

After
various episodes, in 1407 it became part of the Fiorentino State,
but at the beginning of the XVI century it returned once more into the
hands of the Genovese, belonging at first to the de’Mari
family, against whom the islanders rebelled, then to the Banco di San
Giorgio and lastly in 1562, directly to the Genova republic. They
governed it, except for brief intervals, until the English occupation
of 1814. The Vienna treaty of 1815 assigned it (and all the Liguria, with
whom it had divided its fate also in the period of French domination)
to the realm of Sardegna. In 1872 part of its territory was designated
as a rural penal colony , which exists even today.

Places to visit:The vegetation, rich and consisting
of very rare specimensFort of S. Giorgio, erected by the
Genovesi in 1400 on a preceding Pisa nucleus.The Port,
with the remains of a Roman villa.